Since the commercial inception of field effect transistors in the early 1970s, the gate electrode for these devices has been polysilicon. This choice was made both for the refractory properties of silicon, to withstand the heat required for diffusing the self-aligned source and drain in the early technology (and later to withstand the drive step for an ion implanted source and drain), and for the compatible work function between the polysilicon gates and the silicon substrate. A number of alternative materials have been tried by workers in the art but the inertia of polysilicon as the MOS gate material of choice continues in state of the art technology today. However, there are indications of problems developing with polysilicon gate electrodes due to the combination of very small dimensions, i.e. gate dielectric thickness, and low doping levels, e.g. 10.sup.20 /cm.sup.3, for the polysilicon gate electrode. These characteristics combine to introduce depletion effects in polysilicon electrodes which cause unacceptable variations in drive current due to changes in gate capacitance. Also, at these small dimensions problems with lateral diffusion of boron from the p.sup.+ polysilicon to n.sup.+ polysilicon becomes more severe. Boron diffuses rapidly in polysilicon which creates yield problems in CMOS devices. Thus there is a need for an improved gate electrode material in high density silicon MOS transistor technology.